Monday, January 19, 2015

Are both The Dispatch and Jack Hanna serious ("Hanna's outrage is on the mark," Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014)? Have they never seen giraffes rock themselves into oblivion at the Columbus Zoo while pacing the same footsteps, day in and day out? And what about the trail of blood that leads from the wilds to the cages. Jack, what isn't "abominable" about that?

In her column, "What if more women ruled the world," Georgie Anne Geyer wonders whether more female presidents and prime ministers would make a difference relative to our current situation. FA Hayek, Nobel laureate in economics, answered that question 70 years ago in his seminal work, "Road to Serfdom."

Gender is neither the issue nor the solution. It is the essence of government that the worst rise to the top. This is true since it is they are the ones with the greatest desire to seek the means to control others.

If our lot is to improve, the size and reach of government must be reduced. For when that happens, we will only be harassed by petty tyrants, with little resources to truly burden us with their every decree and edict.

In his recent column, ("Sometimes values don't align with the real world," Dispatch, Sunday) Jonah Goldberg reiterated the core tenet he and his fellow neocons share with their collectivist brethren on the left: government is the moral agent.

Goldberg defends the firebombing of Dresden during the final death throes of Nazi Germany as a moral act, even though the intended target was the civilian population and converging refugees. His argument is simple, yet specious: government deemed it necessary to win the war. To Goldberg, government is the moral agent of final appeal. So, by the government deeming the action necessary, it is necessarily moral. No objections allowed.

This is the very same argument used by all governments: when their actions are necessary, they are moral. However, when that argument was used by the Nazis after the war, it was correctly rejected out of hand.

Though Goldberg claims few would call the attack on Dresden murder, he must know that because it, and similar firebombings, the Allies at the Nuremberg Trials did not hold the Nazis responsible for their air raids against civilians targets. Why? They did not want to provide the Nazis with a means to call similar actions of the Allies into question.

Despite what Goldberg believes: an action is not necessary, nor is it moral, simply because government claims it is. That is true regardless of the government making the claim.

According to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute ("Minimum wage to increase by 15 cents," Dec. 27, 2014), an increase in the minimum wage will lead to an increase in consumer spending. But, how is that going to happen?

If I must pay more for goods and services, I will buy less. That is an economic law. It cannot be the case that I can pay more and purchase the same amount at every register.

Some businesses will win, while others will lose. And in those losing businesses, jobs will be lost.

In the end, the consumer will have less goods at the end of the day and more folks will be unemployed.

It is true that some workers will benefit by the increase, but most of their nominal benefit will be wiped out by rising prices.

It's the New Year and Cal Thomas ("If it's not careful, America could be nearing the end of the road," January 1, 2015) already fears he may not be able to shout, "Hail Caesar," throughout 2015.

Thomas should be lamenting the passage of the Republic a hundred or so years ago, not an end to an empire. Yet he argues for increased militarization and interventions, since only that can save us from, what he terms, our "age of decadence."

In the end, Thomas dreams of a larger US empire, Spartanesque in style, with a Roman sense of grandeur.

However, if strengthening the empire is the direction for 2015, we should all expect a bloody year.

So I ask Thomas, "How many of my sons and daughters need to die to satisfy your love for an empire?"

Here is interesting and informative post from David J. Theroux, founder and president, C. S. Lewis Society of California. It is his keynote talk at the first annual conference of Christians for Liberty, that was held at St. Edwards University in San Antonio, TX, August 2, 2014?